A/N: I'm so sorry it's late! I waned to post this yesterday, but I had to re-write this chapter twice, I just wasn't happy. Something just didn't feel right and I think this is about as happy with it as I'm going to get. Thank you so much for the positive response, please keep it up as it does make me post faster and it helps me keep motivated to keep writing.
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Chapter 3 – Little Moments
Samantha Drake ran down the corridors as fast as she could in heels, she'd been ordered down to the medical centre and she wasn't wasting time. She met with Dr Arkham and they dashed the rest of the way. When they got to the small room that had been selected as Harley's room, they saw the Joker jumping at his restraints and Harley trying to strike out.
"Dr Drake, Dr Arkham," Amanda Waller grinned. "Nice to finally meet you. I assume you know about Quinn being under my jurisdiction?"
"Not anymore," Drake insisted. "She's in my care. She's pregnant and needs specific support, not to be enlisted into a ghost team of disposable soldiers. How did you get passed the security-"
"I have government connections that would make your eyes water," Waller said lowly.
"Drake, get her out of here!" Harley shouted. "Get her away from my baby!"
"Oh, shut up Quinn, I'm not interested in bringing you back for Task Force X," Waller chuckled and looked to Harley. "Well, not yet. No point putting a pregnant woman into the front line. It'd only inspire dissent in the ranks. Deadshot would be all over you like a rash."
"How many times have you got to die?" Joker growled. "I'm gonna take my sweet time and chop you up into pieces-"
"Is that a threat, Joker?" Amanda grinned and pulled a gun from her jacket. She pressed the muzzle of the gun against Harley's abdomen and she stared into the Joker's cold green-blue eyes. "Because I think I've got your trump card."
"Do it, saves me the hassle," Joker laughed. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to put a bullet in her for. Preferably her brain, but there will do. It's messy, a lot of blood. But it's definitely a good show piece. Go on, get it over with. Anyone would think it's an empty promise, Waller."
"Stop this, the pair of you!" Jeremiah said angrily. "Miss Waller, put that gun down. Arkham is strictly a no-gun zone, for obvious reasons. What are you doing here anyway?"
"I wanted to check up on my staff member," Waller smirked and holstered her gun. Harley looked quickly at Joker, she wasn't angry with him, she was always going to be his sacrifice. But their baby?
"It seems she's been taking full advantage of her… unplanned leave," Waller said slowly. "I want to know when it is she can return to Belle Reve. I have a few jobs for her team and she needs to be there."
"I'm never goin' back there," Harley snarled. "Never."
"Now, that's the funny part of it all, Harley," Waller laughed. "You don't have a choice. You're a criminal. You don't get to choose."
"And you think you're better than us?" Joker cackled. "Come on, Mandy, you've seen the lengths I'll go to, to get Harley. What do you think I'd do to get my child?"
"I don't know, but I'm willing to find out," Amanda said lowly. "I still hold her life in my hands."
"You mean that little bomb?" Joker smirked. "We cut that out ages ago. You think I'm that stupid that I'd leave that in her neck? Give me some credit. Now go and play with your toy soldiers, tell Deadshot to keep his mind away from my girl and get Flag to go shove something up his-"
"Joker!" Arkham warned. "Waller, either be quiet or please leave." There was an uneasy silence as Amanda walked away and took a seat in the corner of the room. Arkham and Drake moved to stand by the door and Harley was pushed to be beside a scanner unit. The poor midwife who had witnessed the argument was stood nervously, waiting for someone to tell her what to do.
"Miss Crisp, please, start the scan," Samantha said and nodded at the midwife. The small ginger haired woman worked quickly and set up the unit. She felt pressured and terrified.
"Have you had any pain or discomfort?" Wendy Crisp asked nervously.
"No," Harley answered coldly.
"Any unusual bleeding?"
"No, just scan me," Harley demanded. The woman nodded and carefully moved Harley's clothes. She spread a cold gel over Harley's abdomen and pressed the transducer against her skin. "Don't press too hard, you better not hurt my baby."
"This won't hurt your baby, Miss Quinn," Wendy assured the psycho.
"See, this one learns," Harley grinned. "Miss Quinn, nice and proper."
"Goddam you, Harley," Joker snarled. Harley giggled and bit her lip. She stared at the screen, desperate to see her baby. She felt herself become tense when the midwife kept changing position of the transducer.
"What's wrong?" Harley asked. "Where is she?"
"Give me two seconds," the midwife smiled and finally a little flickering shape appeared on the screen. "There we go. Little tyke was hiding from us. There's your baby."
Harley's heart stopped. There it was. A little blue shape that was entirely theirs. She felt a strange surge of purpose roll through her and she wanted to reach out and touch the screen. Her hand jammed against the restraint and she huffed before she stared at the shape again.
Joker stayed quiet and looked for a couple of seconds before turning away again.
This was painful.
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Samantha, Jeremiah and Amanda Waller had left the Joker and Harley once the Clown's had finished the scan and they were now in Jeremiah's office. Waller hadn't dropped the icy cold façade and it unsettled Samantha.
"Miss Quinn is to be returned to Belle Reve once the child has been removed," Waller told them. "She's an asset to the government and needs correct restraint and controls to make sure she doesn't harm anyone."
"Well she's doing just well here in Arkham," Samantha said. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, she's ten weeks into her pregnancy. There's still a lot of time for things to go wrong. I firmly believe that there's enough left of Harleen to bring her back to the front."
"Now, this is where we could have a decent conversation," Waller said, a smirk spread across her face and Samantha felt her blood run cold. "If I can't have Harley Quinn, the Joker doesn't get to have her either."
"Are you sure this isn't a personal vendetta?" Samantha challenged. Regardless of what Harley had done, this was wrong. Waller was wrong.
"Amanda, if Harleen does win out after Harley's treatment, you do realise her record will be wiped and she'll be put back out in Gotham?" Jeremiah questioned. "We can't hold an innocent person if she's completely sane and remorseful after treatment."
"How are you planning on puling Harleen out?"
"Intensive therapy," Samantha answered. "She's going to have two sessions a day from tomorrow for the rest of her pregnancy. We'll use various techniques, we just want Harleen to slip forward without causing too much distress for Harley and the baby. If it means we have to continue after she's given birth, then that'll have to continue. But we're not going to settle for Harley Quinn."
"It won't work that easily, Harley's not about to go quietly," Amanda chuckled. "You need leverage, you need power over her. Press some buttons around the Joker, go for the throat. You're going to have to be bunt. Finesse and craftwork don't work with brick walls like Quinn."
"We're the psychiatrists," Samantha replied. "We'll decide what treatment she receives."
"I don't think you understand my situation," Waller said slowly. "You are holding one of my employees. I want her back once she's given birth. As Harley or Harleen. I have my uses for a psychiatrist too."
"We don't know what Harleen we'd get back," Samantha replied. "We may get the Harleen that helped the Joker escape and she'd still be in love with him, we could get a 5 year old girl who wants her toys and her mommy and daddy. We might just break both of them and we'll have a lost soul. We cannot say what will come out of all of this. Then there's the problem of the Joker. If he finds out that we're trying to push back Harley… we're all dead. We're dead when we take the baby."
"If we have a sensible Harleen, we might not have to do that," Jeremiah pointed out. "The end game for us is for Harleen to take to the fore, get Harley controlled and have mother and child happy. Regardless of how that is. Your plans are your own Waller, but if you put my patient at risk, I will pull rank-"
"You are an asylum, I am a government official with many more strings to pull than this horrible little hole has had patients," Amanda said angrily and walked to the door. "I suggest if you want Harleen, you put Poison Ivy with Harley. The plant is the only way to get her off the Joker. I want my prisoner back. I do not care how it's done."
"We can only do what we can," Jeremiah sighed.
"And I promise that will be the destruction of Harley Quinn," Waller chuckled. "Good day Doctors. I'll see you at her 20 week scan." She shook their hands and left the room, her briefcase in one hand and her notes in the other. She didn't like that Joker had broken into Belle Reve and taken Harley, she didn't like that Quinn had been plotting on her escape from the very start of the mission in Midway City. She'd kept Deadshot, Killer Croc and Boomerang on very tight leashes, but the removal of Harley had irked her more than she'd wanted to admit. She'd even brought Batman into the fold to try and get Harley back. But he'd made his decision to try and tear apart the Suicide Squad, so she'd been forced to go through Arkham Asylum to get to Quinn and Joker.
And she would get one of them.
"Can she do that?" Samantha asked once Waller had gone and was definitely out of ear shot. "Can she really use the government against the Asylum?"
"Yes," Arkham nodded. "She can do what she likes. She's a manipulator. She could sell ice to a polar bear. It appears that Harley and her baby are at very serious risk."
"I want to check that Harley's settled again, she needs to trust me, she needs to know that I have her interests at heart," Samantha said. She walked out of the room, stopped by one of the snack machines and she picked out a few things that she could take for Harley without too many issues. She hoped that the peace offering would help her get a relationship with Harley.
Purely for professional reasons.
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Harley's evening had gone as normal with her so-called morning sickness starting from 5 and going straight through until 8. The disgusting excuse of food that she'd been given was cold and still by the entrance to her cell. She'd washed her mouth and brushed her teeth before she threw herself into her cot bed. She was exhausted and hungry, but she just couldn't hake herself eat the cold mush that was on the plate on the floor. She felt herself slipping towards an exhausted slumber and she pulled the sheet over her shivering frame just as she did fall to sleep.
She wasn't sure what time it was, but she was woken by cool hands slowly sliding up her waist and her heart stopped. She opened her eyes and prepared to fight off whoever was touching her. She saw a tinge of green and she grinned broadly before he sat up and crushed her mouth against the man above hers. His growls and purrs sent waves of happiness through her and she dug her fingers into his hair. His arms wound tight around her and his metal grill nipped at her lips, he pressed her against his lean body and he savoured her warmth.
"Puddin'," Harley gasped against his mouth.
"God Harls," Joker groaned and he put her back down on her cot. He slipped her orange Arkham shirt up over her belly and he smoothed his hands over her abdomen.
"How did you get here, Mistah J?" Harley whimpered as he moved down and his mouth pressed against her naval gently. She'd seen the pain in his eyes at the scan but knew better than to prod at it right now. He was in a seemingly good mood and she wasn't about to ruin it.
"Hello, little one," Joker purred. "Your daddy was very happy to see you today."
"That's a lie," Harley whispered.
"It hurt, I won't tell a tale," Joker said and glared at Harley for a moment before his eyes softened and he sighed. "It hurt to see this one so strong after the twins."
"J-"
"It's good, princess," Joker said and put his finger over her lips. "This one will survive. This one will live. I wasn't prepared to be angry with this one, I wasn't prepared to hate our baby because of what the stupid little Bird did to our twins."
"You hate-"
"Harley, shut up," Joker snarled and covered her mouth with his hand. "For a few minutes, I hated it, but I got over that. You get every part of this, you get to carry our child, and you know whether he's there or not. I just get to see it through a screen and it made me angry that it wasn't our first babies, but, I got over it and I am happy that this baby is very much alive and strong." He kissed her belly again and she nodded silently to him when he moved his hand off her mouth.
"Sorry puddin'," she whispered and he moved to be back above her. He kissed her mouth and waited for her to relax again before he moved his mouth to her neck and collarbone.
"Our boys are in, we're running this shithole now, princess," Joker grinned. "We've got CCTV repeating earlier footage, Blair and Cur are outside, standing guard and we've got a few things to talk about, haven't we?"
"Waller knows about our baby," Harley whispered and stroked her fingers through his hair.
"She does, are you worried?" Joker asked, his lips ghosting over her skin.
"She's dangerous, puddin', if she wants him, she'll take him the second he's born," Harley nodded. "She doesn't care for anythin'."
"She won't take her," the Clown told Harley and his hand spread over her abdomen again as his cold blue eyes stared into hers. "I'll slaughter anyone that tries, Harley."
"Yes, puddin'," she whimpered. The thought of Waller having her hands on their baby terrified Harley. It couldn't happen. She wouldn't let it happen. She felt Joker's hands slide up her body and she let out a shuddered sigh.
"Puddin', they've given me a toy, the lady Psychiatrist, Drake," Harley grinned.
"Yes, princess?"
"Can I… I mean, am I allowed to play with her?" Harley asked curiously. "I wanna break her down, I wanna pry open her mind. I want to make her see that our reality is the only option."
"You start down this path and you know where it leads, pumpkin pie," Joker growled and he waved his hand up and down at her. "You are where it could end."
"No, puddin', it wouldn't get that far," Harley replied and gripped onto the shirt of his uniform. "I want to toy with her. They'll never give you another chance to get into someone's head, let me play whilst they won't expect it." He groaned a little and he looked down at her. He didn't like this, she was good, but he wasn't sure if she was good enough to handle this.
Harleen had been a right pain in the ass when he'd been twisting her mind, she'd been sparky and feisty and so totally in love. He wasn't sure he could cope with knowing that Harley was trying to coax another person into loving her.
"She's not allowed to kiss you," Joker snarled, not able to keep his possessiveness at bay and his hand curled in her hair. "You have to tell me everything that happens, you are the apprentice here. Do not let her touch you much. I swear to god Harley, if you're doing this to make me jealous-"
"She's our way out, puddin'," Harley told him and put her hands on his cheeks. "She's just an object for us to use. I'll hold her hand and stroke her hair, but not… I wouldn't kiss her. I couldn't she's not… she's not you."
"Do you want her to live?" Joker frowned.
"No, I'll kill her, but I want to play," Harley answered. He was quiet for a few moments as he took in her scent and warmth. He finally nodded and cupped her jaw.
"Do it, princess," Joker grinned. "I want to see what devil you can create. But you have to destroy it, don't care for it."
"Never, daddy," Harley giggled excitedly. "You're the only one I want, you and our baby. She's like Harleen, puddin', she's gonna be so much fun."
"Daddy's missed his little monster," Joker purred and grinned when Harley immediately started to tug at his trousers.
"Come on then puddin', time to rev up your Harley," she giggled excitedly.
"That's such an old line," Joker smirked as he nipped at her neck.
"But it works every time."
"Doesn't it just," Joker chuckled.
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A/N: So, we've got two sides trying to play a similar game, who's going to win? Reviews = Love